A company terminated an employee due to breach of trust and theft from the company and also refused to pay him the severance pay and advance notice fees.
The Court held that the employee is not entitled to severance pay and prior notice payments due to the circumstances of the dismissal. An employer may deny an employee his right to severance pay and advance notice payment under certain circumstances. However, because termination is a punishment in itself, these should remain as exceptional measures that should be used sparingly and only in extreme cases, after balancing the various considerations for severity or mitigation, including the severity of the acts for which the employee was dismissed, the damage to the employer, the period of employment, the status and position of the employee, the extent of the violation of trust, the employee's personal circumstances, etc. Here, the employee breached the trust placed in him in a severe and extreme manner for a long period of time, took advantage of his position in a conspicuous way and pocketed significant sums over a long period of time. In the aforementioned circumstances, and even when it is not possible to quantify the damages caused to the employer, the employer is entitled to deny the employee his right for severance pay and compensation for prior notice.